In the United States, National Public Radio puts out regular podcasts on the economy. These are often informative and engaging podcasts about topics that at first glance may seem quite dull, such as the European debt crisis and credit default swaps. Earlier this week, I listened to this gem on the CEO of Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Gary Loveman.

What does a former Harvard economist turned casino CEO have to say about user experience? Plenty. Coming from an academic background, Gary regularly runs experiments to assess and improve the customer experience at the casinos he runs.

There are some parallels to what we do as interaction designers. We want users have the best experience possible with our products and design the interface accordingly. But how good are we at monitoring a user when they are using an application for real? How do we actively address problems as they arise? What incentives can we provide and what changes can we make to prevent people from abandoning a product when at first they don’t like it?

Amy Quinn recently spoke to Kristian Simsarian of IDEO about his Interaction 2011 workshop titled “Design consultantship: The art of hearing and being heard”. Their conversation centered on hearing about some of what he has to share with user experience consultants, how design and design relationships have changed, and learning more about what he plans to cover in his workshop.

How long have you been doing consulting?

Kristian Simsarian

I’ve been at IDEO for ten years and during that time I’ve had an amazing array of experiences. I’ve worked with very large companies (e.g., Nokia, Microsoft, AOL and SAP), startups, non-profits and governmental organizations like the NIH and FBI.

For Nokia we had this great project where we redesigned Ovi Suite, the PC desktop app for Nokia’s mobile phones. It is essentially like iTunes plus the iPhone. Nokia is an international mobile giant, and for this project, we were designing for over 300 million people worldwide and we travelled to just about every continent to do research. We did version 2.0, which has a much simpler and cleaner interface with fewer features than the 1.0 version. This is perhaps one of the first times a later version design got smaller, but here definitely “less is more”. This was an exciting project and our design team won an IDEA award this year for the design.

Before IDEO, I worked at research institutes. We always had sponsoring clients in government, the military or at technical companies such as Sun, HP and IBM. In many ways, these relationships were similar to the client relationships I’ve experienced at IDEO where there is a sponsor investing millions in what they hope to be a wise investment with high return in value.

For the Interaction 11 conference, you are doing a workshop on how to be a better consultant titled “Design Consultantship: The Art of Hearing and Being Heard.” I’m excited about this workshop since I think those of us who do UX consulting can really learn from each other. What are the main points you are going to cover?

We are going to work through designer-client case studies that should feel familiar and real to designers. The format includes reading email trails, recreating a presentation, and walking through a review transcript. We’ll do some role playing and try to explore and understand what is going on, going wrong and what might have been different. As you might expect, each case is problematic in some way. There will also be a framework presented to hold these points together as well as reflection on how it relates to the participant’s own practice.

I am now also a professor, starting a new Interaction Design program at the California College of the Arts, and I now find myself taking learning more seriously. The basic components of learning are theory, activity and reflection. The workshop is built around these as well as being fun.

One of the key skills we’ll focus on will be setting expectations. The other day, I was talking to a project lead and he said, “I don’t know if I like this job because all I do is fight fires.” During our discussion, I said “Actually the secret is to this job is to put out fires before they start or even better, remove the fuel.” A lot of people who encounter these situations realize that the issues that arise can often be traced back to how expectations were set.
A few more skills include: 1) active listening, 2) realizing what is important, 3) seeking idea integration and 4) asking for, receiving and giving feedback (both on content and process). Many of these skills are not part of standard design education and we usually need to learn these through experience. It’s important to pass these skills on.

The secret is to this job is to put out fires before they start or even better, remove the fuel.

How do you best listen to clients while also encouraging them to listen to you?

You first need to find your curiosity about where your client is coming from and developing empathy with that place of origin. It’s the same type of thing we do with our user research. You can bring those research skills that we use to understand our users to understanding clients.

With this information about what’s important to your client, you then need to prioritize what’s important to you and the project and reframe the direction accordingly. There’s something powerful about empathy. It allows you to understand how to frame what you say so you can be heard and this opens up dialogue.

More and more I find myself not only educating clients but facilitating meetings with clients. What advice do you have for being a successful meeting facilitator?

I find it works best to turn meetings into working sessions. When you think you are in a meeting, you know you are in the wrong place. Many of the clients I work with don’t work in design organizations and they often find the designers’ environment refreshing. You can work that by making the gathering itself something to be designed. Instead of calling it a “meeting,” call it something else, like “charette”, “workshop”, or “design review.” If you use design terms, then it becomes an experience to be designed. It’s exciting to see folks lighten up when we introduce play and make an event that is as inviting, lively, engaging and collaborative as possible.
Here are some specific examples:

Use breakout teams whenever possible. It often feels that if there are more than three people in a room, working on a task in groups of two is better. Break a problem down into something people can work on and then bring back and share with the larger group.

Create an environment. Sometimes a work-session can be created to feel like you are inside a “setup wizard” by creating a sequence of large posters with instructions and blank spaces that become the agenda of the workshop. This creates a collaborative space with collaborative surfaces. It’s also a powerful visual environment that enables participants to look around and know what’s coming.

Make it visual. I find it really valuable to give everyone some visual prework. For example, have attendees bring two pictures to the meeting of their product: one that represents the current state and one that represents an aspirational state. You almost always find that people have more design sensibility than you might think. I find people always come in with amazing things and it awakens a different way of sharing.

Find a place for everyone to be heard. Find creative ways to make sure everyone is heard while being sure to bring out all of the voices in the room, the business, technical and human design voices, and exploring that information together. Find the intersection between these voices and see how you might reframe the problem so that everyone can acknowledge the different aspects of success, not just design.

Of course there are tips for being an expert facilitator, but the overall thing is whenever you can, turn meetings into fun events. There’s also something to good food. Often we have surprises, like cookies or shakes or fresh local fruit that come in at a special time, especially at that 2 PM lull. Everyone loves to feel like they’re being treated to something special by just being part of the event, and nice food is a simple but good example.

How have you seen design consultant-client relationships change throughout your career?

I’ve seen a change from the world seeing design as a way to execute to design now being acknowledged as a bonafide way to create value. This has been one of the biggest and enlivening recent transformations for design. More and more leaders are looking to design for leadership in the creation of new value for their organizations and you find more companies trying to generally lead by design.

Business and technology are starting to realize they are not the only drivers of value and see the gap in what they deliver without design. Ten to fifteen years ago they really thought they had it all covered with comprehensive feature lists and efficient marketing. Toward the end they would turn it over to the “pixel guys.” Now everyone is seeing that designers have a complementary sensitivity and way to create value.

The US is a little late to come to this. Europe and Japan have certainly been doing this for a long time. Traditionally the US has been focused on business leadership. And now we have a number of companies that have shown that good design is good business. The obvious example is Apple and they have been marvellous at setting an example by doing both. There are other companies out there like Google, Mint and some design-led startups. People are finally getting it.

And we’re also at the point where the general population is becoming discerning as consumers of interaction. So whereas ten years ago, people would say, “I must be dumb, I can’t use this interface.” Now they’re saying, “This just isn’t a good interface.” So we’re seeing the rise of the discerning software consumer. A dramatic example of this is the consumer rejection of Windows Vista. There was a Time Magazine article entitled something like “Why people hate Vista” when Vista came out. First, it was amazing that a software review was in Time and second that there was a mainstream rejection. This was a big moment showing a new public sophistication that says, “Maybe I don’t need this.”

… whereas ten years ago, people would say, “I must be dumb, I can’t use this interface.” Now they’re saying, “This just isn’t a good interface.” We’re seeing the rise of the discerning software consumer.

How do these skills relate to designers having impact in the world?

You can’t do it alone. Having the idea is often the easy part; it’s actually the expression and the realization that is hard. It’s like the Edison quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” You have to have people collaborate on the 99% part. It takes a team of different skills to make things happen. You have to find a way to listen and be heard and make sure the client is part of your team.

Having the idea is often the easy part; it’s actually the expression and the realization that is hard … you have to have people collaborate on [that] part.

Interaction 11

Kristian Simsarian is giving the workshop “Design Consultantship: The Art of Hearing and Being Heard” at Interaction 11, the fourth annual conference hosted by the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). The conference is sold out, but workshops (including his) are still available. Each year, IxDA aims to gather the interaction design community to connect, educate, and inspire each other. This year it is held in Boulder, Colorado (USA).

]]>http://johnnyholland.org/2010/11/the-art-of-hearing-and-being-heard-kristian-simsarian-and-design-consultantship/feed/0IDEA 2010 Conference: Day Twohttp://johnnyholland.org/2010/10/idea-2010-conference-day-two/
http://johnnyholland.org/2010/10/idea-2010-conference-day-two/#commentsThu, 07 Oct 2010 20:54:43 +0000Amy Quinnhttp://johnnyholland.org/?p=8905Day two of the Information Architecture Institute’s annual IDEA2010 conference promised to be just as interesting as the first. Just like [...]]]>

Day two of the Information Architecture Institute’s annual IDEA2010 conference promised to be just as interesting as the first. Just like the first day, day two’s presentations and breakout sessions were about future trends in technology and how our profession can adapt to meet the opportunities and challenges these trends present.

Here’s a recap of the sessions that occurred on the second day.

The Best is the Enemy of the Good: Similarities in Perfection Between Magic & Design

With Jared Spool’s reputation as an engaging, entertaining speaker, there was a strong sense of anticipation for his and son Reed’s presentation about uncovering similarities between magic and design. It’s safe to say the presentation met, if not exceeded, those already high expectations.

Following Reed’s introductory magic performance, Jared outlined how magic as a craft reflects the path of novice designers, starting at a beginner stage, advancing to mimicry and evolving to innovator.

In addition to similar career paths, magicians and designers share many similar concerns when creating the environment for an intended experience. For instance, whereas designers must concern themselves with the context in which a product or service will be used, the technology to make it work, and the business goals it must address, Reed and other magicians also have to manage variables such as sound, light, and stage blocking.

There are also similarities between when to innovate and when to leave well enough alone. In both magic and design you evaluate whether there is an actual benefit to innovation, and not simply doing something because it hasn’t been done before, or because someone else is already doing it.

With classic Spool humor enhanced by sharing the stage with his son (one of the funnier exchanges was when Reed handed Jared the presentation remote, saying dryly, “Here, Father”, to which Jared replied in even stronger deadpan “Thank you, Boy”), the audience was treated to a fun and unique show that revealed insights many of us can relate to but may not necessarily practice (at least until Reed’s breakout session featuring magic lessons).

The Importance of Story(thinking) in the Age of Service Ecosystems

Cindy Chastain expands the reach of storytelling from the foundation of user-focused scenarios describing tasks into describing how, when, where, and ultimately why people will engage with many interconnected services to address needs and desires.

Before diving into storythinking, she started by revealing how many digital properties don’t start and stop at the desktop. For example, she cited the Major League Baseball’s iPad and iPhone app At Bat 2010. This is a tool that not only provides information about games and standings, but also provides additional information that’s not found on television broadcasts, such as details regarding pitch location, speed, and more.

Though storytelling has been making the rounds in the UX community, Cindy’s presentation discussed less-told aspects of using narrative in the design process; specifically, she established the “storythinking” approach. To illustrate storythinking, she displayed a customer journey of shopping for telecommunication services from the customer’s perspective that identified several business opportunities throughout the beginning of the process, whether it started over the phone, via television, a mobile device, or the flagship web site.

She reinforced the importance of a common theme and approach across such an ecosystem to establish greater trust and engagement with the customer. She also offered how task flows and concept models can act as the foundation for storythinking exercises. These exercises help practitioners evaluate and develop an interaction design for a group of integrated applications and services.

Persuasive Design: Encouraging your Users to do What you Want them to do!

Slot machine game designers use persuasion techniques to attract people to play and keep playing these games. Advertisers use psychology to persuade customers to buy products. In Andy Budd’s presentation on “Persuasive Design: Encouraging your users to do what you want them to,” he illustrated in detail how these fields use persuasion techniques guide people’s behavior.

He provided some good examples of how some applications currently persuade users and shared how interaction designers could use the same techniques. These techniques include establishing authority and trust, layout and positioning, social proof, loss aversion and likeability and gifting.

Jeffery Zeldman, founder and creative director at Happy Cog, gave a presentation outlining where we’ve come in terms of web design and where we are going. After his interesting and informative review of information design and technology, he explained how Web 2.1 is now emerging. This new web interaction paradigm is a result of the perfect storm: the maturity of standards-based web development (i.e., HTML5, CSS3, and webfonts), webkit-based smart phones (like the iPhone and Android), and user’s increasing acceptance of the same website looking different on different devices (for example, a website looking different on an iPhone compared to a browser on a laptop.)

Web 2.1 will be about “ubiquitous interaction”. His summary of “Got a minute? Check in” encapsulated the current mobile usage of the web where people consume short information chunks via their phone throughout their daily tasks (such as waiting in line, and while waiting for the laundry to finish.) This new world will be powered by web standards and informed by user experience.

The Information Architecture Institute’s annual IDEA2010 conference, hosted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, recently concluded after two pre-conference workshops and two days of presentations. This year’s theme, “Integration: Designing for Tomorrow”, encapsulated the forward-thinking and motivational goals for this conference. With this in mind, many of the talks were about future trends in technology and how our profession can adapt to meet the opportunities and challenges these trends present. Comprised of both standard conference talks and hands-on breakout sessions, the conference provided opportunities for attendees to learn more from the invited speakers as well as connecting with their peers.

Here’s a recap of the sessions that occurred on the first day.

Ubiquitous Information Architecture and Gamestorming

In the first half of this session, Peter Morville discussed his idea of “intertwingularity.” This term describes integrated technologies as “a place where information blurs the boundaries between products and services to enable multi-channel, cross-platform, trans-media, physico-digital user experiences.”

These increasingly prevalent interaction paradigms are causing our profession to think more strategically about our work. Peter posited that interaction designers need to create ways to capture these intertwingular interactions in maps. Looking to service blueprints and what other information architect professionals are doing in terms of documenting these interactions as inspiration, he worked with Jeffrey Callender to create an experience map.

Experience maps show challenges and opportunities from a user experience prospective. Using a usage scenario to frame the map (in the example above “What do I want to do for entertainment on a Friday night?”), user context, decisions, and interactions with services and technology are explored. How products and services compete across categories and how variables such as time, cost, and location may play into a person’s decision making process are all explored.

Upon reflection and discussions with other information architecture professionals, he concluded that this experience map was a good start, but did not fully meet the objectives of the experience map and could be improved upon. He invited the audience to provide feedback on how to take this to the next step in the day’s first breakout session using gamestorming techniques

After Peter’s talk, the three authors of Gamestorming came up for a Q and A session with Peter.

Gamestorming techniques allow teams visually solve problems. These techniques help make creative generation work more productive and replicable. Culled from their past professional work and from interviews with creative professional peers, these gamestorming techniques are captured in their book.

Information work is more like craft work where junior practitioners learn techniques through apprenticeship type roles. However, this type of work is hard to observe. Gamestorming helps capture these processes for people to use information as well and encapsulates techniques for people to use. As one of the authors said, this type of work is best learned by doing and trying out the techniques.

Peter invited the audience to use the gamestorming techniques to work with him to help develop the experience map covered in his intertwingability topic.

Going Native: The Anthropology of Mobile App Design

How do you design for all of the mobile operating systems and devices out there? Josh Clark, a developer and designer specializing in mobile technology, covered how to consider the divergent cultures of these various mobile platforms when designing mobile applications.

Culture comprises the following: population, customs, governance, style of dress, and belief. Using this as a framework, he examined how the cultures of various mobile platforms (iPhone, Blackberry, Android, and Windows Mobile) are different. His presentation covered the statistics surrounding the users of these devices. He used this information and the advertisements of these devices to inform his summary of these different cultures.

He suggested that given all of these cultures, practitioners should think about the target users, their mobile phone use and then design applications accordingly. For example, if you are creating something for a group that has not been shown to be smart phone users, it may make more sense to design an SMS application instead of a mobile application. This suggestion seems exceedingly appropriate for an audience likely to use bleeding edge technology.

These cultures also provide opportunities for mobile device designers and will change over time. Those who design for mobile devices should pay attention to how these various cultures emerge.

(How is This All) Going to Work? What we Teach, How we Learn, and What Employers Want

This panel was comprised of a group of user experience practitioners: those currently in graduate school, recent graduates, user experience directors, interaction design professors, and a recruiter. Each of these people gave quick talks about their professional roles and shared advice about professional development.

Erin Moore – Erin is a student in the MFA in Interaction Design program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City. She outlined how she determined what she was looking for out of a graduate program and explained how the program at SVA is meeting her needs.

Liz Danzico – Liz is the current chair of the MFA Interaction Design program at the School of Visual Arts. She presented three pillars of learning in the program she leads: experience, behavior observation and empathy, and language. Through targeting these three areas, she is successfully educating students in the SVA program.

Dan Klyn – Dan is a lecturer in Information Architecture at the University of Michigan. He discussed the how the discussion in the field over the difference between information architecture and interaction design is influencing how he is teaching his students. He has his students explore the intersection of these terms (or as he called them “the slash”) as part of their education.

Katie McCurdy – Katie is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan Human-Computer Interaction program who now works as an interaction designer at R/GA. She talked about four things did at school to get the job she has now: 1) learned tools and methods and technology, 2) practiced working through and presenting design challenges, 3) worked on an independent project, and 4) met as many people as possible, especially at conferences.

Cindy Chastain – Cindy is the creative director at R/GA and is also professor at the interaction design program at FIT. She outlined what she looks for when hiring practitioners and how she helps the people on her team grow. She outlined the idea of a t-shaped person who has deep expertise in a few areas and a general knowledge of other applicable areas. Through this framework, a person can evaluate where they are in their career, where they can grow professionally, and how they can work best with the others on their team.

Amanda Schonfeld – Amanda is a recruiter at Sapient. She shared advice on what to do (and not do) when getting a job. Networking a critical part of getting a job and how you present yourself is key. She also stressed the importance of tailoring your application to the company, being appropriately proactive when contacting a company about a position, and being nice to the recruiter when an interviewer doesn’t go your way.

Richard Dalton – Richard is the manager of user experience at Vanguard. He mentioned the three main characteristics of the ideal candidate: talent, cultural fit, and passion. He reviewed the various ways he assesses these three areas.

Trends in the Future of Online Experiences

Forrester Research Senior Analyst Vidya L. Drego presented a summary of where digital services and experiences may be heading within the next two to three years. The talk began with an evolution of motor vehicles to reinforce how early sequential versions of technology are often closely tied to the metaphors and functionality they intend to replace. She then introduced how web sites have mimicked a similar pattern over the last fifteen years.

Her research at Forrester shows how many digital services are finally differentiating themselves from what have been the norm (static information sites read on a desktop) and will continue evolving as customized, aggregated, relevant, and social services (collectively referred to as CARS) experienced on many devices.

Vidya’s presentation included many examples of services now using the CARS framework, and suggested that the coming years will see more and more people gravitating to services employing such a framework. Among her examples of early adopters to CARS, she specified the work of USAA and how their mobile application is a primary touchpoint for their auto insurance interactions with customers, and Weather.com. Though many in the audience are likely familiar with providing customized, aggregated, relevant and social experiences, it’s important to understand these experiences are becoming more mainstream, and thus expected by potential and current customers and audiences. She also reinforced the importance of aligning the CARS framework with actual customer needs and business objectives to provide services that actually benefit the provider and consumer.

We Are All Content Strategists Now

Karen McGrane of Bond Art & Science closed the first day of IDEA with a rousing presentation mixed with a presentation style and format that had yet to be seen.

Rather than describing what a content strategy is or is not, she showed how content has been neglected throughout many design processes and methods. She also had some good suggestions on how to engage clients who may think content can be left to plug into a content management system days before release. Content is a crucial piece of user experience and it us up to all of us to ensure this isn’t left on the sidelines.

Karen encouraged interaction designers to do three things to ensure content is included in the user experience design process:

think beyond the template

evaluate content quality

plan for content creation

Think beyond the template – Make sure you evaluate not only page templates, but also the content of the pages. Start by taking an inventory of the application’s current content and determine the content gaps. Ensure that this task is done early with your client; this is a large task that should not be done at the last minute.

Plan for content creation – Like developers, writers work better with directions. Include content directions in your screen specification documents.

Karen also discussed the role of a content strategist and how this role relates to information architecture and interaction design roles. She urged us to not fear this specialization. She compared what we do as application creators to TV show productions: TV shows have a lot of people with specialized roles to make a TV production happen. She suggested that our industry is very similar and that having a lot of roles signals a field’s maturity.

She hoped by the end of her talk that we would realize the importance of content, use our newly acquired content strategy tools, and partner with a content strategist person more often. Karen’s talk was very informative and convincing. She argued convincingly that we need to not only analyze and refine content as part of the design process itself, but proactively engage our clients to understand content as more important to business success than simply more features or slick functionality.

]]>http://johnnyholland.org/2010/10/idea-2010-conference-day-one/feed/2Creating Successful Style Guideshttp://johnnyholland.org/2010/02/creating-successful-style-guides/
http://johnnyholland.org/2010/02/creating-successful-style-guides/#commentsMon, 15 Feb 2010 13:23:42 +0000Amy Quinnhttp://johnnyholland.org/?p=5839Style guides are a great way to ensure user experience consistency when developing an application and a way to communicate [...]]]>

Style guides are a great way to ensure user experience consistency when developing an application and a way to communicate user experience standards across an organization. They can be application specific, platform specific, and may encompass enterprise-wide standards. A style guide can help make the development of user interfaces more efficient and help ensure good user interface design practices.

Types of Style Guides

Style guides for applications usually contain specific instructions on how to design and develop an application’s UI. In some instances, code snippets may also be provided to simplify development of the application.

Enterprise-wide style guides may include standards specific to an organization. These style guides may overlap with company branding style guides that are often defined by marketing departments. They can outline a variety of company-wide items such as standard colors, typography, logos and language.

Example of branding color definitions found in a corporate style guide

Platform specific guidelines are often tailored to a specific platform, such as desktop, web, or mobile. These style guides often give particular guidance on how to design for that platform, such as control and content guidelines.

Example of a link control definitions in a website style guide

The style guide you choose to create can be any combination of these three types. It’s up to you to figure out what makes the most sense for you.

Style Guides Are Not UI Specifications

Style guides are different from user interface specifications:

A specification document details the functionality of a UI design for developers building an application. It is usually more descriptive and is often accompanied by wireframes that act as blueprints for the design. In contrast, a style guide is often a general outline of the elements of a UI design.

Style guides have a longer shelf-life than specifications documents that are often tied to a project life-cycle. When an application is first created, some elements of the initial specification document might turn into the application style guide for long-term reference.

Elements of a style guide may be referred to from a specification. For example, the functionality of a web application enhancement would be captured in a specifications document; but the operation of standard UI controls found throughout the website would be outlined in the website style guide and referred to by the specifications document.

How to be Successful

Over the years, I have had a chance to create a variety of style guides. The format and purpose of these style guides were variable and were suited to the task at hand: such as details of the grid layout, colors and typography used in a website and a general guidebook providing guidance on the use of website user interface controls and how to write web-based content. From these experiences, I’ve learned a lot about what makes a style guide a success and I’d like to share some of these tips with you.

1. Keep the audience in mind

Style guides can be written for numerous audiences (e.g. other user experience practitioners, developers, graphic designers, business analysts, etc.) and the content should be structured to match the audience. Graphic designers would benefit from knowing the colors used in a website elements and programmers may desire knowing the code used to create a control.

2. Plan for success

When planning a style guide, seriously consider what would make your style guide successful in your organization. Would it be ensuring your company understands how to better design usable applications? Or would it be ensuring the large-scale website you are creating has a consistent user experience? Or would it be something else?

3. Keep it alive

Documents produced in traditional document formats can become stale and quickly become outdated. Successful style guides are produced in a manner that supports easy maintenance and supports a living document.

4. Define a review process

Create a process that supports modification and review of the style guide to actively ensure style guide maintenance and buy-in. You may want to have a person or group of people responsible for periodically updating a style guide.

5. Think of the platform differences

Style guides can be platform specific or neutral. Design guidelines can be different depending on the platform (i.e. Windows vs. Mac, iPhone vs. Blackberry). Consider how you want to support communicating any platform differences when creating your style guide.

6. Socialize the document in your organization

The use of your style guide should be communicated throughout all levels of your organization to ensure everyone knows the existence of the guide, understands how to use the guide, and actively works to use and maintain the guide. The more people about your style guide, the more successful you and your style guide will be.

7. Clearly define mandatory and flexible standards

User interface design is part art and part science and user interface paradigms shift quickly. Ensure that your style guides support new platforms and creative ideas by specifying what standards are mandatory and what are flexible. For example, you may want to ensure certain usability rules are strictly adhered to throughout your applications (i.e. “Sans serif fonts must be used for text that will be read on a screen”), but be more flexible in other areas (i.e. “Radio buttons should be used when a user is asked to select one item from a list of items.”)

8. Make the style guide as scannable and searchable as possible

Style guides can be very dense and contain a lot of detailed information. Search and browsing capabilities will make it easier for people to find what they are looking for in your style guide. In addition, use as many visual examples as possible to support quick scanning of style guide elements.

9. Provide real world examples

Successful styles guides often show one or more examples from real applications for illustration. If you are writing a style guide for a specific application, use examples from that application to demonstrate your point. If you are writing a style guide for a large organization with many applications, ensure that your examples encompass all of the applications you are describing.

I hope you find these tips helpful when you are creating your own style guides. Do you have any additional tips you would like to share?